NVIDIA today issued a press release confirming its Tegra technology will be used in the soon-to-be released Zune HD

The Microsoft Zune HD, which will
launch on September 15 and is available now for pre-order, is powered
by the NVIDIA Tegra processor, NVIDIA confirmed today in a press
release.

"Tegra provides
the multimedia muscle in Zune HD," according to Michael
Rayfield, NVIDIA mobile business GM. "Users will love the
device's new design, amazing multimedia features and HD video out
capability. Zune HD is a must-have for anyone looking for the
best portable digital media player on the market."

The
NVIDIA Tegra has eight independent processors, including an HD video
processor, graphics processor, audio processor, and two ARM cores.
The hardware will help power video and audio for the device, which
has a 3.3-inch OLED color display and supports up to 33 hours of
music and 8.5 hours of video use.

It was widely believed the
Zune HD would be powered by NVIDIA hardware, but today marks the
first time NVIDIA or Microsoft publicly discussed the use of Tegra
technology.

The latest Zune will be available with the 16GB
version ($219.99) and 32 GB ($289.99), and is available in five
colors, though only two colors are available in the
pre-order.

Despite being compared continually to the popular
Apple iPod -- which controls the MP3 player market -- Microsoft
continues to state it is pleased with overall Zune sales.

"Today
we're happy with the number of devices we've sold, and as we've said
before, for Zune it's
about the longer-term strategy and the multi-year vision for this
business," a Microsoft official told CDFreaks last
month. “Increasingly, Zune’s focus is on areas where it is
differentiating against the competition, such as the Zune Pass
subscription service, which gives users access to millions of songs
for the price of one CD a month and lets them keep 10 tracks a month
to add to their permanent collection.”

Microsoft will likely
take a similar approach with the Zune HD, but the company understands
comparisons with the iPod Touch will continue.